A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Fingerprints have been a source of people’s great fascination and can be traced back to ancient times.
Today, however, it is not easy to establish whether the fingerprints were placed on the artifacts, walls, and documents intentionally or coincidentally.
Handprints and fingerprints made by W. J. Herschel. Public Domain
The earliest records of fingerprints are seemingly dated to 7,000 BC and originate from Jericho, near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. Neolithic bricks from this ancient city contain thumbprints of ancient bricklayers, as it is mentioned in K. M. Kenyon’s book “Archaeology of the Holy Land.”